Your special interests...

Post Reply New Topic

<-----Interest located here (icon).

Special interests? You mean those things I obsess and obsess over and then gets me into trouble? I can't live without them, but I must admit they do invite more stress than they're worth.

My obsession is bus-drivers in a certain bus company. I have been obsessed with this since 2007, but the bus that I get unexpectedly went into a different company a few years ago and so I had to get used to all new drivers, which I thought I would never be able to do, but I did quite quickly, and I'm still obsessed now. I always feel nostalgic when it comes to obsessions, so any slight change beyond my control really sends me into panic. I tell you, being obsessed with a bus company is probably one of the worst things to be obsessed with, because bus companies change all the time and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Also being obsessed with the people can be unhealthy to obsess over. I seem to be the type of Aspie who obsesses over people, and when I have a fascination with people, all I aim for is to get to know them, to get involved with them, and try and be like them, and hopefully date one of them (a man, of course). If I get an obsession with a woman, I want to try to compete with her, as in be just like her. And everything these people that I'm obsessed with do, really fascinates me. It then causes excitement, which gives me the urge to want to tell everyone. That's when trouble starts - especially when you tell another person you are obsessed with about what you have done or said to one of the other people you are obsessed with. If it gets all round, then you end up receiving a name for yourself, and end up being a pest. You might even end up angry with yourself.

I made the same mistake with the bus company.

I'm not sure if I have a special interest now, not one that's all consuming and interferes with my functioning. Not the kind that I think I'd be happy giving everything else up for and just living in a shelter somewhere as long as I had them , things that I;'d spend all day doing and get anrgy if I was interrupted. I was like that with my imaginary games in my imaginary world as a kid. I've been like that with certain novel series that I;ve been obsessed with , like Harry Potter. Right now what I spend my free-time doing and am obsessed with to a lesser extent: reading fantasy/sci-fi novels (reading Diane Duane right now), playing Sudoku online and beating my old time and checking this site.

One of my current special interests at the moment happens to be haunted dolls. I have no idea why, I just find the topic intriguing. There are all these stories online about these dolls that people believe to be possessed by the souls of their former (or deceased) owners, and while some are malevolent spirits (such as Robert and Annabelle) most of them are simply lonely and wish to be loved and cared for the way their original owners used to. Either that, or they're upset at being ignored and they "act out" in ways that young children might. From what I've heard, circumstances in which actual demons inhabit dolls (as in the case of Annabelle) are actually pretty rare, and the majority of the spirits that inhabit dolls range from lonely, to petulant, to playful and childlike.

OOO I want to read more about that LtlPinkCoupe!

Edit to ask: Did you get one of the dolls?

That's great, wozeree! Thanks. I was kind of worried when I posted about this that I'd freak people out without meaning to. And, no, I do not currently own a doll possessed by any spirits, although I've looked on Ebay and there are tons of them for sale - the majority of them being "highly active" spirits. It's kind of saddening to see these dolls shunted from home to home - maybe if they had a stable home environment, the spirits that live inside the dolls would calm and not be so "active."

And, truthfully, I'm sort of leery of buying a doll with a spirit living inside it - during the "Annabelle Doll" fiasco of the early 1970s, two nursing students consulted a medium who told them that Annabelle was possessed by the spirit of a harmless little seven-year-old girl who just wanted to be loved, and the "spirit" inside the doll turned out to be a demon that attacked the girls' friend as he slept. It even had the medium fooled.

Wow, that's crazy! Yeah, I'm pretty much science based in belief, so I'm gonna say, none of it is true, but I would be leery of having one too (so heck, don't ask me what I really think). Anything is possible, I guess. I would love for you to get one and report back, but I don't want anything to happen to you either!

There's this woman who sits next to me at work - before she sat there, there was another woman - everyone in the department hated her, she got laid off and this one replaced her. Now we all hate this woman, she's horrid, she got me called into personnel Friday. My friend always jokes that it's the desk and now I'm starting to think it's like the Amityville Desk. Ya never know!

Anyway, I'd love to hear more about whatever you found out.

So many fascinating special interests around here!

Hyenas, history, especially ancient, animals, animal rights, veganism, sci-fi, Star Trek, Stargate, philosophy, modern and ancient, history of thought: philosophy, theology, science, math, culture, religion bashing, astronomy, naming my farts, just the big one really, the ones that make me proud, science, guns, swords, reading about unusual ideas. Bah... what else? Ethics, art, music, mostly metal and electro, debating, reading stories with philosophical content, especially unusual rogue philosophy, video games especially strategy, some role playing...

As a kid I was fascinated by sharks. Spent weeks digging info on encyclopedia (there was no internet!).
Embroidery. Can't do anything else around the house until I finish the piece, so I tend to go for smaller ones, 'cause I know whats gonna happen.
Reading. Books, books and more books. Mythology , Psychology , Anthropology, Medieval History, WW II, Classic-literature among others. If I'm hooked on a book, may sleep deprive until finished.
Cinema. If a movie is good, it's usual to listen to the ost (at work, home, wherever) for days. Also dig trivia (details, special editions, etc) about it.
Music. Loop is a must.
Cleaning. When on a cleaning rush, the house is turned upside down. That includes cleaning the kitchen closets and the socks drawer. I like to see things shinny and tiddy in the end.
Games. PC, but mainly PS. One of the FF's took 8 months to finish. Had to go about all the quests and special weapons and stuff. Could have killed the final boss earlier but thought "oh, one more level...".

I guess these are hobbies that don't include other people. Going out at night or have dinner with other people, for instance, don't make me tingle.

I've been a Kinks Fan since I was 9. At that age, I knew there was this band I really liked that had a very unusual sound. I first recognized the name of that band at the age of 12, but I listened to The Beatles at that time, because I actually wanted to fit in with serious rock n roll fans at that age. My dad even asked me if there might be a band that I liked even more than The Beatles one night at the dinner table. I mentioned a band that recorded a bunch of songs about London and England. I found out the name of that band a week later. These days, almost every release of their music in the PYE collection in one form or another on CD. I chose this interest to talk about, because it's my most prominent one. You can look at my profile if you want to know about all of my interests.

I feel that my special interests are different from hobbies because they are highly repetitive and extremely specific (look at my interests listed in my profile). I do have several, but almost all of them are linked thematically; some more indirectly than others. Also, I obsess over certain parts of these already existing interests and enjoy "collecting" information on them instead of actually applying them to some domain. I can do the latter now because I've pretty much forced myself to. While it can be quite stressful to have to apply them, I do it because I highly value contributing to society in a meaningful way.

Right now, another one of my current interests is Rio 2, the sequel to Rio - you know, the movie about the blue macaws in Rio DeJaneiro. I saw the first movie on TV a few months ago, and I really like Blu, the main character - he strikes me as being an "Aspie Macaw," since he's kind of shy, socially awkward, anxious, routine-bound, deeply entrenched in his comfort zone - and is also very sweet. He sort of has to learn many of the behaviors that birds use instinctively (such as flying) although there are many things he can do that other birds cannot - such as ride a skateboard, imitate certain sounds, do fist bumps, use a computer, and open bird cages.

Anything to do with science (especially biology), psychology/psychiatry, getting out and about in nature, reading classic literature, as well as some video games and moviesfrom my childhood.

I go back and forth between the three:

-Talking about video games and things on the internet for months on end
-Playing video games, researching video games, following new video games for months on end

And constantly

-Creating. I love art. I love the thought of art. I love to create. I compose my own music, I write, and I draw. For me I am an artist at heart.

Right now they are Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, Duke Nukem, Legend Of Zelda, and Left 4 Dead.

In most, if not all of these, I have a specific obsession over just one or two characters/creatures.

Transformers: Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rahzar
Star Wars: Darth Maul
Duke Nukem: Pigcops
Legend of Zelda: Ganon and Yuga
Left 4 Dead: Hunters

Most of these I have been interested in for many years, although with Zelda I only got interested in it recently.

Two major ones that I find fit me the closest in how I feel would be Yuga and Rahzar. Yuga heavily so because he (even as 'he' looks like a 'she') has a lot of my personality traits and even the quirky tendencies (liking something so much that he wants to become it as he considers it perfect for him -he likes Ganon so much he becomes Ganon.)

Rahzar is there not just because he's interesting, but because (as I mentioned over Yuga) is that how he looks, is perfect in how it would fit me. That is, if I was able to go into or was in the TMNT universe, becoming like that would rapidly become a major intense obsession that would be hard to resist, as it would personify most of the traits I wanted and still allow me to obsess over other special interests. I know I'd be asking him how he became like that (he was human and got bitten by an Akita then splashed with mutagen, then fell into a vat of mutagen later and now looks like that.) granted I wouldn't look exactly like he does (smaller most likely, with a few less spikes and you know, female) but that is OK and actually good. But beyond becoming like that, that would be where my obsession ended, and even though I looked like that it wouldn't stop me from obsession over other things, like Hunters and Pigcops and daydreaming about fighting Ganon.

Looking like that, I'd get left alone, although if I wanted to go out in public I'd have to cover up my features with heavy baggy clothes and a coat, and bulk up my (now skinny) arms and legs, and a thick cloth cowl and scarf to cover my face would be an absolute must. Seeing a half skeletal wolf face would definitely scare the hell out of most people, although I'd end up likely laughing too much over it just because their expressions would be funny. Plus I'd have to wear heavy leather gloves and shoes since my bony fingers (and toes) would now be razor sharp. Although if people asked why I was covered up like that, I'd just say I had a condition that makes me burn horribly when exposed to the sun. A beautiful bonus though would be is that I wouldn't have creepy old men trying to hit on me anymore, and if they did, I could just show them the merest glimpse of my face, and they'd go away fast.

I have a tiering of special interests.

Lifelong (as of current):
-Birds
-Pokemon

Cyclical (comes back every so often)
-Gravity
-Bad Movies
-Low Level Programming

Current:
-Bad movies